Experiences and fun stories from a farm in Western Belize in Central America, by two gringas!

Monday, June 20, 2005

Work Work Work

Today was just stuffed with work, almost no fun. Luckily, it was raining outside, so I didn't feel the urge ("Drang") to go swimming or to hang out in the hammock ("Hängematte"). Lots of jobs pouring in, which is - of course - good.Robbie was busy all morning, cleaning out the little house we are still renting in town, because the floor is done now in the "art studio": the former garage which we converted to a cozy little extra room. We are now ready to move stuff in, after David repainted the lower walls. Helen and her daughter Beth helped Robbie pack boxes and get everything cleaned out. It will surely be another 2 or 3 days work, but we have 4 more weeks to go to get everything moved, so we should be fine. Robbie needs to have the doors replaced in the new studio, because the original ("ursprüngliche") carpenter used wet wood, like almost everybody here and they are so warped ("verzerrt") that they cannot be closed properly. The new carpenter will come by the end of the week, hopefully.

Hanna came this afternoon to say goodbye before she leaves for Germany for 4 weeks and to check her e-mails. She brought a friend from Ontario (a little village between San Ignacio and Belmopan), Kerry, a young American, who is as "thin as a rake" ("Strich in der Landschaft??"). She is married to a Belizean and has been living here for many years.

Anything else today? Oh, yes, Robbie bought 3 new DVDs in town, so maybe we watch one of them tonight. Having no TV has its advantages ("Vorteile"), definitely. A movie night is something really special now. We do have a small TV in the other room, which is connected to an outside antenna, but we only get 3 channels, 2 of them Guatemalan and therefore in Spanish, and the other one, Channel 5, is a Belizean channel and in English, but comes in so bad that I rather read their news lines on the Internet a few hours later. See the link on the right side "Belizean News". Pretty interesting.At the moment the country is preparing for the election of new area representatives. I am not sure how to compare this to German politics, maybe it is something like a "Bezirksabgeordneter". They are responsible for a certain part of the district ... So here in our district Cayo, we have an area representative for Cayo North, Cayo South, Cayo Northeast, etc. Maybe some of my translator friends have an idea, what the correct translation would be? The guys that are running in our village are Alwin Penner from Spanish Lookout (modern Mennonite Community) and Ralph Hung (a Taiwanese, married to a Belizean lady). We don't know if we can vote yet, because we are not naturalized (eingebürgert), but some people say we can participate in village elections ("Dorfwahlen"). Well, we will see. Both are good guys and try to help our little community a lot. With pipes ("Rohre") for the water system, or bulbs ("Glühbirnen") for the football field, for example.Back to my jobs now before it gets to late ... I DO want to watch a movie tonight. With popcorn and all :-)